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*Sigh* ... Grand Blue, a goldmine of a manga. From the initial sheer shocking introduction of the story to a drinking club half-posing as a diving club, Grand Blue certainly covers everything excellently.

**Possible spoilers ahead?**

Going into the manga, I didn't expect much. The cover image wasn't exactly alluring and the synopsis seemed, well... like a typical slice of life with a tinge of diving. However, it didn't take long for me to fall head over heels for this manga.
On a side note, as a pretty big Kaguya-Sama fan (my previous favorite manga), I was a bit shocked that with just thirty or so chapters, ... Grand Blue not only beat the 200 or so amazingly done chapters of Kaguya-Sama but also captivated my attention. In fact, the absolute perfection of this slice of life/comedy manga compelled me to write this review. Without further delay, let's ... dive into it :3

Story: 9.3/10

We might as well get my only major piece of criticism out of the way. Although every other factor of Grand Blue was almost perfect, the story was a bit weak. There were instances where I felt like the story was drifting apart and in different directions, making it a bit sad and confusing, before the author successfully managed to pull it back onto its main path. This minor flaw leads me to rate this section a 9.3, but otherwise than weakness, I only have compliments to give to the various hilarious twists, how the story was set up, and how the story was continually interesting.

Art: 11/10

The Grand Blue manga's art is easily an 11/10. I can't say much about the anime but from the various clips I've watched, I must say that I still much prefer the manga. Stray thoughts aside, everything was done beautifully art-wise. The oceans where they dived, the surrounding backgrounds, and most of all, the facial expressions. I can't deny that the facial expressions might've been a tad overexaggerated, but it was what drove the humor home. Moreover, the character Chisa Kotegawa's (will explore more in the characters section) facial expressions were absolutely golden. They could go from an absolutely heart-melting embarrassed face to the extremely well-done typical
"B-Baka" tsundere face. Overall, the art was one of my favorite parts of Grand Blue and it well deserves an 11/10.

Character: 10/10

Again, the characters in Grand Blue are absolutely awesome and as unique as characters can get. As readers, we get to see some "water" (vodka) offering seniors, an Otaku who only wants a younger sister to call him "Oni-san", and a doting older sister, who in reality is a major sis-con. While these characters play a big role everywhere, they aren't the only ones who are different and add their own flavor to the story. I would say that almost every single side character has something unique about them. Some are funny, some are interesting, and some are just downright golden. The examples showed above only display a minority of the beautifully written characters in this story.

Also, I loved every character. They always played their part excellently and always maintained a hilarious atmosphere. Instead of throwing away minor characters like many other slice of life animes do, Grand Blue always found some way for most of the side characters to be effectively re-incorporated or put back into the story. This leaves readers like me satisfied with knowing more about certain minor characters that we love, instead of them being never used again. Moreover, a huge point that easily makes this category a 10/10 is the fact that I didn't hate a single character. In most shows, I would've probably hated some character in the first couple of episodes or chapters, but Grand Blue characters are simply built different.

Enjoyment:

You probably know this already but the well-written story, fantastically drawn art, and top-tier characters lead me to enjoy every single chapter of Grand Blue. There wasn't a single moment that disappointed me and the fact that it set me off in laughter so often shows that it's something that can instantly brighten up my life during a gloomy day. While I still enjoy Kaguya-Sama(Hayasaka <- Iino <- Kaguya <- Chika), Grand Blue has overtaken it and is leading with a wide gap as my all-time favorite manga. I very highly recommend anyone reading this to immediately put it on their read-list and make it a priority.


Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoy it as much as me~